This week's additions focus on finance, founder stories, and leadership, with new digests from Founders, Ahrefs, and Bill Gallagher. Highlights include Built a $2B fortune by keeping cash reserves and buying when panic forced others to sell Mass-emailing competitor backlinks wastes time and builds bad links

Cash flow management

Podcast

Hetty Green: The Richest Woman in America

Founders December 22, 2019

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Cash flow management 9

Origin stories 7

Identity & self-belief 5

• Built a $2B fortune by keeping cash reserves and buying when panic forced others to sell
• Profited from every financial crisis for 60 years by studying history and patterns
• Grew wealth through unglamorous discipline: extreme frugality, obsessive research, contrary investing

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SEO

YouTube

How to identify high-quality backlinks that move the needle

Ahrefs December 18, 2019

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SEO 9

• Mass-emailing competitor backlinks wastes time and builds bad links
• A sudden organic traffic drop often means a site has been penalised
• Nofollow links and over-linked pages pass little to no ranking value

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Case studies

YouTube

How the EO Accelerator program shapes early-stage founders

Bill Gallagher December 18, 2019

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Case studies 9

Business operating systems 8

Cash flow management 6

• A peer accountability group beats any mentor for early founder growth
• Paying yourself below market rate hides your business is unprofitable
• Intentional habits built at $300K compound into advantages at $10M

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Fundraising & VC

YouTube

How Female Founders Raised Their Series A: Process, Psychology, and Partnership

Y Combinator December 18, 2019

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Fundraising & VC 9

Pitching investors 7

Hiring & recruitment 5

• Optimise for the partner, not valuation — misaligned incentives cost more.
• Tara closed its Series A in nine days by running a ruthlessly structured process.
• Female founders face pressure to mirror male norms; traction is the only real equaliser.

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